Best Use of Social Media for Television

Winners

Pretty Little Liars is known for generating a lot of social media buzz but we needed to take it to the next level when promoting the summer finale of Pretty Little Liars in August 2012. We announced that someone on the show was going to be revealed as being “guilty of the ultimate betrayal.” To drive excitement for this episode, we created an integrated on-air/online campaign called #TheBetrAyal to get fans talking about who would be revealed as the betrayer in the summer finale. The center piece of this campaign was #TheBetrAyal Suspect Tracker” App.The summer finale of Pretty Little Liars became the #1 “most social” TV series episode in history, breaking records with over 1.6 million comments according to SocialGuide The buzz began growing three weeks before the finale date when we launched #TheBetrAyal campaign. Our on-air promo campaign teased that someone was going to betray everyone else in the summer finale episode. The hashtag #TheBetrAyal was featured in the spot. At the same time, we launched “#TheBetrAyal Suspect Tracker”, an App which lived on Facebook and abcfamily.com. We narrowed down “The Betrayer” list to 12 suspects and encouraged fans to tweet their vote for who was guilty of the ultimate betrayal. The order of the suspects updated in real time based on votes. Hundreds of thousands fans checked out the App. Talent and journalists tweeted their votes as well, helping to fuel the buzz! We included the hashtag in our tweets from our Pretty Little Liars handle.
#TheBetrAyal campaign drove massive buzz leading up to the finale and during the finale, buzz reached a peak of 36,000 tweets per minute. And most importantly this buzz helped fuel ratings. Pretty Little Liars hit Season 3 highs in nearly all key demos including Total Viewers, standing as the show’s most-watched summer finale on record.

#Winning at the Oscars® Awards
About this Entry:
Skinnygirl® Cocktails stole the spotlight at the biggest award show in Hollywood – the Oscars® Awards. Leveraging the excitement surrounding the “Super Bowl of cinema” of their passionate female fan base, Skinnygirl Cocktails, through creative real-time social activation, was able to capitalize on the awards show by thinking outside the award show itself to integrate the brand into pre-and-post-show action in a strategic partnership with E! and popular women’s charity Dress for Success®.
#LadiesInRed: Skinnygirl Cocktails added substance to one of America’s most stereotypically superficial events. Extending our partnership with popular women’s organization Dress for Success®, Skinnygirl Cocktails pledged to donate $2,500 to the cause for every celebrity to wear red on Oscars night. Leveraging the hashtag #LadiesInRed, we encouraged fans to Tweet @Skinnygirl whenever they saw a red dress. What kicked off with a couple Tweets turned into a full-blown Twitter party as fans engaged with the brand and each other to keep tabs on celebs in red. With help from our fans, Skinnygirl Cocktails donated a total of $45,000 to the charity and made the campaign into a conversation across social media. The #LadiesInRed hashtag garnered over 5 million impressions and ~1,000 mentions in less than three hours.
From the #ERedCarpet to the #AfterParty: The debut of our TV during the E! Red Carpet coverage kicked of our social efforts. Synchronized Tweets, #ERedCarpet and thanking @eonline started the conversation, ending at the After Party. To truly wrap up the event “like a lady,” Skinnygirl Cocktails sponsored the E! Oscar’s After Party and sent one lucky winner and her guest to attend. With a team on-site to host the winner’s experience, we were able to live-tweet and post exclusive behind-the-scenes videos and photos backstage at the event. The sponsorship also included a custom-built Skinnygirl Cocktails bar, complete with our own mixologist. Our featured cocktail, the Skinnygirl™ Starlet, made its appearance in a 20-second call-out where our mixologist made one for E! host, Ross Matthews. The live-tweet team posted the recipe, encouraging fans to “sip like the stars” at their own Oscar’s viewing parties.
#VirtualParties: To generate excitement and scale, we activated our strategic relationships with a core group of bloggers with interests and audiences similar to the brand and gave them true VIP access. They were flown in from around the country and given an in-person meeting including an overview of the brand and experience the cocktails first-hand with our mixologist. Equipped with all of the information on the brand as well as the awards season execution. Skinnygirl further got their message out through a strategic partnership with Cosmopolitan as the “virtual cocktail” of their Oscar Twitter party.

Finalists

My name is Roger Smith and, as soon as I find my pants, I’m running for president. Of the United States. Of America. I’ve got some solutions to the nation's problems that I’ve been been developing ever since lunch. Fight unemployment: Deport the poor. This is the bold plan we need. Other candidates say they don’t care about the very poor. ANYone can not care about the poor. But who’s got the courage to put them on a raft? We can make America rich again. Only rich. And illegal immigration is also a very personal issue to me, because I really enjoy getting high on cheap drugs from Mexico. We need to ensure that all immigrants bring primo product state-side. We need to double the border police to make sure that nothing gets across that isn't quality stuff. This campaign isn’t about me. It’s about me finding something to do while Glee is in reruns. You’ve watched the debates. You think those guys are nuts? I’ll show you nuts. So, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, merch, God, America, where am I?Shhh... Can we do this in a whisper? Jack Daniels & I did a little capoeira last night. But it’s a good question. Strong question. I like the cut of your jib. Sorry if I’m a little rambling. It’s the bourbon talking. And the bourbon is chatty. What was the question again? Why should I win? Good question. Strong question. I like the cut of your jib.
Let me just stab myself in the knee. AAAH!! Okay! I’m awake. Why should I win? Have you read my twitter @rogersmith2012? Have you?? Because I haven’t, I really can’t get that thing to work. I can post stuff, but I can’t find anything that I post. Let me ask Paul to help. He’s my tech guy. Okay, he’s my dealer. And his name is Neal Babcock. But look at that! He found my posts! Thanks, Neal Babcock. You can run and play. Let’s find some good ones: “Partied with #republicans after #convention. Lost my wallet in#ChrisChristie.” “Bring a friend to vote. I did. And his name is Flask.” “I just won in Iowa! It's true, look it up! Okay, don't. But I did.”
Arianna? Honey, it’s the Shorty people. What’s that? Yeah, they probably get that all the time... What? She says to check outhuffingtonpost.com/rogersmith. I’ve been blogging. I’m a blogger. I blog. Arianna! Don’t touch that. Okay, just a little. I’ve got time for a shorty.
Merchandise? Holy crap, we’ve got it -- foxshop.com/rogersmith2012. Other candidates make promises. I sell them to you. Shirts, bumber stickers, flasks, posters. I’m also having a garage sale next Saturday. I’ve got some old sneakers and a plasticware. Just one. Just one plasticware.
Facebook and I have a complicated history. Sure, my memes are beloved -- http://bit.ly/rogerhorsebayonet -- but on the other hand, I bought shares at $38. And now I can’t afford the bullets I would need to shoot Jesse Eisenburg.
And have you seen the attack ads against me? -- http://bit.ly/rogerattackad -- It’s like Kissinger said: “If they’re out to get you, you must be doing something right.” I think that’s what he said. Hard to tell with the accent. We usually just communicate through the physical act of love. During which, oddly, he also has an accent.
In summary: I didn't win the election, but If you find it in your sexy hearts to award me this honor, I’ll do whatever you want. Seriously. Anything. I’ll kill. I’ve killed before and will do it again. It doesn’t even slightly bother me. Step-mothers. Reality show hosts. Handsy gym teachers. I’m yours to hire. I totally get politics. Vote for me.

For CW’s 2012 Fall Launch, we introduced the first-ever Live Twitter Feed in a Magazine. By adding an active 3G data chip to thin digital video screens pull in a live feed of tweets from the CW Television Network. The targeted insert ran in the October 5th, 2012 issue of Entertainment Weekly.
For the first time ever, technology has reached a threshold that empowered us to connect a traditional print magazine wirelessly to the internet. This allowed us to pull live social media, specifically from Twitter, into the physical pages of a magazine, forever changing the creative possibilities of the platform. Being the first to develop and introduce this technology is a real coup for CW. This big idea not only gave the network the attention that they were looking for, but it also spearheaded advancement into the future of media. This big idea grabbed headlines in mainstream press and drove massive chatter for CW. The insert achieved a 725% over-delivery in media value for its 227MM estimated impressions from the press reports. Coverage included NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams as well as various other high profile news sources and blogs. The online press alone generated over 36,000 social shares and thousands of tweets.
CW had a very successful Fall launch, as Arrow debuted with a 1.3 rating (adults 18-49) and 4.02 million viewers, making it the network's best premiere since The Vampire Diaries and the most-watched telecast for the network in three years.
With the buzz surrounding the new and returning Fall shows on CW, the Live Twitter Feed in a Magazine is putting the spotlight on the chatter in a way never done before. This groundbreaking execution is yet again raising the bar for what is possible in print media.

For years, wrestling fans have welcomed WWE into their homes via our weekly shows, including Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown and WWE Main Event, airing Wednesday nights. For those fans unable to attend a live show, the viewing experience has been just a passive way to consume the entertainment of our product. But the advent of social media and WWE’s aggressive integration of social media into our shows provides a viewing experience unmatched by any other weekly episodic show.
Through the use of our branded WWE mobile application, our production/content team provides supplemental information and video throughout the show’s commercial breaks. Social media, incorporated in all levels of our product (even show names), has been and will continue to be an important part of our overall fan experience.WWE’s initial foray into weekly television began on January 11, 1993, when the first episode of Monday Night Raw aired. Twenty years and more than 1,000 episodes later, Raw stands alone as the longest-running weekly episodic television show in history and WWE’s flagship program. Alongside live pay-per-view events and two pre-taped programs, Monday Night Raw or WWE Raw is the main vehicle in which our fans are able to connect with our product.
WWE’s mobile application and our second-screen experience, WWE Active (previously #RAWActive), lead our social efforts. In addition to showing exclusive backstage content and fan polls and tweets, WWE Active serves as the platform by which fans can actually control the direction of the show and the outcome of specific storylines.
Throughout the show, an on-screen personality, whether it be commentator or wrestler, will give the fans a choice of who will participate in the main event of the show, with selection based purely on the results of a poll of fan participation. Fans are able to see who is leading the poll and what trends they have started on Twitter based on the number of votes tallied.
Major announcements are announced via a number of mediums, too, including Twitter and Tout, a video-sharing service used by all of our Superstars and Divas. For example, Vickie Guerrero, the on-screen Managing Supervisor of Monday Night Raw announced a match that would happen on the Feb. 19 episode of the show. Fans who followed her and WWE on Twitter at @ExcuseMeWWE got an exclusive insight the show before her tweet was shown on TV.
We show our socially active fans that we enjoy their participation and constantly work to ensure they are engaged in our product as opposed to passively consuming it.

This past summer, USA Network launched Suits Recruits, a multi-platform interactive social game which took fans on a journey through a power struggle erupting between Pearson and Hardman, the two founding partners of the firm featured in USA’s number one original scripted program Suits. The unparalleled five-week immersive experience engaged fans with their favorite Suits characters by assigning them their first case in a digital story that coincided with the on-air plot lines and office intrigue when the show returned in June.
Suits Recruits became the number one feature on the network’s site driving more than 42.0MM page views with fans spending more than 8 minutes per visit playing and interacting with a Suits original storyline reflecting the show’s plotlines, characters and sponsor Lexus. Leading into Suits season two, fans joined Pearson Hardman’s Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle) as a lead paralegal, or Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty) as a powerful assistant, and the rest of the cast in Suits Recruits, a thrilling legal experience challenging them to solve one of the firm’s toughest cases. Self professed Suitors were offered the role of a paralegal or as an assistant, which enabled them to enjoy two different storylines and information privy only to their specific character to keep them on top of the leaderboard.
Transitioning seamlessly between video, audio and text, almost a quarter million fans read case details, speculations on promotions, converse with the series characters, and pick up juicy tidbits of inter-office relationships. As Suitors engaged with the characters and answered questions correctly, they earned achievements that qualified them to enter a sweepstakes to win the law firm’s $50,000 bonus. A unique version of USA’s Character Chatter was established specifically for the game entitled The Water Cooler, curating the conversation and encouraging discussion among fellow Assistants and Paralegals.
Suits Recruits demonstrated the power of digital storytelling to create two-way engagements so fans could explore the show’s plot beyond its weekly, 42-minute linear broadcast. It set itself apart with four crucial components: creativity, crowdsourcing, the latest Social TV and gamification technology, and a brand partnership native to the show.
From the very first concept phase, series executive producers Doug Liman and David Bartis and Suits creator Aaron Korsch oversaw Suits Recruits to ensure it accurately reflected the show and its characters. Within this custom experience, fans interacted with each other to find specific clues to continue in the game. Combined with these two components, a cutting-edge team including 30 Ninjas and Social Samba enabled an unparalleled two-way engagement. They could integrate the game into their Facebook world, pulling their friends into Suits Recruits, through Facebook’s Open Graph technology. Helping to drive the story was a Lexus LS 460L sedan that on-air serves as the official vehicle of Pearson Hardman and within Suits Recruits was used by players to canvass the city and track down evidence.
The Suits Recruits game was the #1 feature of USA’s site, driving 42.0MM page views and almost a quarter of a million unique players with an average time spent of 8.1 minutes per visit. (source: Omniture).

Mugshot Yourself, is a web app that takes your photo and uses advanced Fast Image Replacement technology to blend it with vintage mugshots from the 19th century to create someone new but also recognizably you. Created by BBC America along with social media agency Social Bomb and technologist Kevin Slavin, Mugshot Yourself used an advanced technology in a way that hadn't been done before. A fan-based social campaign, Mugshot Yourself introduced people to the fascinating world of Copper, the new cop drama set in 1864 NYC.
BBC America partnered with Mark Michaelson, building his arresting "Least Wanted" collection of vintage mugshots into the experience, combining user-submitted photos to artfully composite your face onto the face of an actual 19th century criminal. Mugshot Yourself analyzed your face in a captured photo, factoring in environmental data about lighting and the rotation and angle of your face in order to blend your image with a historical mug shot curated by Michaelson.BBC America knew that one of the most unique things about Copper was its strong sense of time and place – New York in the civil war era is a fascinating period – and there’s no one out there more adept at creating immersive digital experiences about place than Kevin Slavin. Bringing in Mark Michaelson’s amazing images brought Mughsot Yourself to another level that hit on all the touchpoints and themes of the show in an interesting way.
People love to play with their identities online, to share interesting things with their friends, and to talk about things they love. This format usually works best with shows people already know – The Simpsons, Mad Men – and Copper wasn’t out yet. BBC America really had to focus on people’s fascination with New York City, with history, and with true crime – all great subjects – and combine these things in a compelling way.
The results were greater than anticipated, generating over 15M social impressions from shared user mugshots across BBC America’s social media platforms. Mugshot Yourself received wide coverage from press outlets including Fast Company, The Daily Mail, Huffington Post, AOL, USAToday.com, Laughing Squid and Digiday, among others. The activity propelled Copper to become BBC America's highest rated series premiere of all time.

With 1.295 million social mentions across social networks, Telemundo was the number one Spanish-language broadcast network on social media on election night and ranked fifth nationwide among broadcast networks, cable and programs regardless of language. The hashtag #YoVote (IVoted) was promoted throughout the campaign and proved very successful in encouraging Latinos to register and vote in the elections. Telemundo combined its Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts to engage the Hispanic community with record-breaking prime-time election coverage, increasing their viewership by +30% from 2008 Election coverage.
The social campaign powered by Telescope, delivered real-time audience interactivity measuring the social pulse on the night with a live Tweet-o-meter measuring the tweet race between Obama and Romney, up-to-the minute curation of tweets and live integration to air.
Election Night created a lot of noise on 6th Nov 2012. Telemundo’s campaign got to the pulse of social conversation and views of the Hispanic community, a community that helped define the outcome of the 2012 Election.
The social campaign empowered the Latino community to participate on election night, giving them a platform to share who they voted for and discuss key election issues through videos, photos and comments, all pushed live to-air.
Telemundo Election Night, ‘Decision 2012: Noche de Elecciones’ was ranked #1 among Spanish Language networks and #5 on Trendrr’s Social TV chart for Election Night, November 6, 2012 – surpassing longtime Hispanic competitor Univision for most social TV programming on the night of the 2012 Elections.
The event required live, up-to-the-minute curation of high-capacity traffic with record-setting volume. Telescope’s Connect platform captured all information in real-time, providing the Hispanic community with relevant and immediate data during the election. Telemundo offered the most compelling real-time social experience for viewers integrating them into the live TV experience through social conversations, social data, real-time Twitter polling and SMS. ‘Pulso Hispano’ featured two additional interactive components on screen: a ‘Tweetometer’ of Obama-related Twitter activity versus Romney-related Twitter activity and a topical SMS polling with real-time, graphically represented results.
Telemundo was the only Spanish-language broadcast network to increase its election coverage viewership from 2008, with the newly added 360 conversations. The campaign garnered fantastic results: Telemundo’s primetime election night coverage on Tuesday, November 6 posted strong gains over the network’s 2008 election night coverage among key demographics, up +30% among total viewers (persons 2+) (927,000 vs. 711,000) and +24% among adults 18-49 (427,000 vs. 343,000), according to Nielsen.
Telemundo partnered with Telescope Inc to power all mobile and social components of the campaign and the broadcast graphics solutions were delivered through an integration with Chyron.

Current Entries

Discovery Channel’s Shark Week 2012 marked the hallmark summer programming event's 25th anniversary. The social media strategy aimed to bring viewers closer than ever before to these fascinating creatures, which have been captivating audiences every summer for 25 years. Over the last few years, fan response to Shark Week on social media has been unprecedented, and Shark Week 2012 was the most social yet, proving that the old adage is true: everybody loves Shark Week. From 10 hours of live, fan-driven commentary on air to Phil DeFranco’s nightly Shark Week Chompdown to Shark Week Bingo, social media served up something for every Shark Week fan. To bring fans closer than ever before to Shark Week, Discovery gave fans on social media control of the live broadcast by fusing live fan tweets on-air for 10 hours of primetime viewing, as well as an interactive on-air nightly Chompdown hosted by Phil DeFranco, in which fans tweets decided which item a giant mechanical Megaladon shark would chomp each night. Leading up to Shark Week, fans could tune in online to a live 360-degree shark cam, featuring daily feedings, chats with shark experts at the Georgia Aquarium, and more. As well, fans could download Shark Week Plus for Discovery Channel for iPad app, an immersive experience providing complementary content, audio-synched to exactly what viewers were watching at that time. Additionally, the social media strategy included a Thunderclap conservation campaign; interactive Shark Week bingo that fans could play with their friends on social media; a GetGlue contest with Shark Week themed-TOMS and perhaps most importantly, heavy fan engagement through the @SharkWeek Twitter feed.
The result was the most social Shark Week ever, with more than 1.6M tweets that took over 35% of all cable-TV social chatter that week. Fans took to Twitter in droves, professing their love of Shark Week, and hoping to see their tweet on-air. On its first night, check-ins for Shark Week eclipsed the check-ins for the Summer Olympics Closing Ceremonies, proving that even at the ripe old age of 25, Shark Week continues to be the cultural zeitgeist of summer programming on all screens.

Comedy Central's annual tradition of Stand-Up Month usually consists of online showdowns, smackdowns, trash talks and weeks of voting. In January 2012, we did something different. Instead of casting digital “votes,” fans were invited to engage with a Facebook app that would allow them to watch videos from their favorite comedians and then “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. There were no restrictions on how many comedians you could like or follow – just like in real life.
Throughout the month, the most popular comedians’ in the app had their pre-taped specials make the Friday night line-up on Comedy Central and served as the lead-in for the channel’s stand-up premieres each Saturday. Thus the viewers engaged with the Facebook app to directly affect Comedy Central’s on-air programming. Stand-Up Month went from a competition to a conversation. And it was good.For Comedy Central's Stand-Up Month (January 2012) we let viewers program the Friday night on-air line-up via a new Comedy Central Stand-Up Facebook app (http://mashable.com/2012/01/13/comedy-central-stand-up-app/ ).
Once users “liked” Comedy Central Stand-Up (which had zero likes on January 1, 2012 – and 500K likes by the end of January), they were given access to the app itself, which featured short clips of a series of comedians. By watching, liking and following these stand-ups, viewers were casting a "vote" for these comedians.
The comedians themselves were chosen for the app with social media in mind. The comedians with new specials premiering in January -- Tom Papa, Kevin Hart, J.B. Smoove and John Mulaney -- each chose talent that they like and follow on Facebook and Twitter.
The comedians with the most votes on the app (Donald Glover, Aziz Ansari, Jim Gaffigan, Michael Ian Black and Chelsea Handler to name a few) had their pre-taped specials broadcasted on Comedy Central in a block of programming every Friday night in January, leading up to January’s debut specials from Papa, Hart, Smoove and Mulaney.
Meanwhile the app itself, created by third-party Omnigon, won Outstanding Achievement in Website Development by the Interactive Media Awards™ in June 2012. The app was recognized for its design, usability, innovative technical features and content.
The whole app was built to connect comedy fans with their favorite comedians, introduce them to like-minded stand-ups and, especially, to integrate social media more closely with on-air programming. The app also served as a sneak peek to the new Comedy Central Stand-Up website (launched October 2012): http://cc.com/standup.

Ink Master: Skin in the Game was a digital companion to Spike's Tattoo competition show, Ink Master. Each week we gave the audience the responsibility to declare who deserved to win the Ink Master elimination challenge. After brushing up on the judging criteria in "Peck's Corner" users could click and zoom into each elimination tattoo in our high resolution viewer. Then they could cast there vote for whom they thought best followed this week's criteria -- and share those votes to their social media. Weekly voting culminated in the live season finale where it affected who ultimately was crowned Ink Master. The experience was optimized for desktop, tablet and mobile devices.Skin in the Game let fans become an integral part of the show by allowing them to become a "4th Judge". This created a breakthrough multi-platform experience which extended the show's content beyond the television to a digital platform.

Cartoon Network took fans on a three-week voting experience to unveil the “Baddest Bad to ever Battle Mordecai and Rigby” from September 11 through September 28, 2012. Week one (Round 1) began with 8 of the “baddest” Regular Show villains paired up against each other. Cartoon Network posted an image of the villain and asked fans to “like” the villain they thought would win in each match up. Week two (Round 2) began with the four villains chosen from the previous matchups, and week three (Round 3) was the championship round. On the day of the Season 4 opener, the “Baddest Bad” of all villains was revealed as “The Hammer.” With each round, there was a new cover image posted – illustrating the bracket results.
Coinciding with the Ultimate Villain Smackdown - and over the course of the 3-week downtime - were posts encouraging fans to tune-in to Battle, Hero and Villain themed Regular Show Episodes. Since the launch of the Regular Show Facebook page in September 2010, the primary objective was to attract new viewers, and message to show tune-in. Over the last 2.5 years, these objectives have remained the same, but Cartoon Network has undertaken a number of different strategies to appeal to our growing number of fans, and punctuate the core brand message. By effectively appealing to the needs of Regular Shows’ core audience, the Facebook page has seen a progressive increase in engagement and “likes,” all while staying true to the brand voice.
Cartoon Network deserves to win “Best Use of Social Media for TV” because the Regular Show Ultimate Villain Smackdown not only saw celebrated success in a challenging dynamic, but it epitomized the objectives set forth at the launch of the Facebook page in 2010. In the execution of this Facebook stunt, Cartoon Network was faced with two potential obstacles. The first was to raise awareness, without revealing that the villains were returning to the Season 4 premiere. The second was to keep fans returning to the Regular Show Facebook page in lieu of the fact that the show was in replays.
With that in mind, the objectives of this Facebook stunt were to:
-- Get fans thinking about the Regular Show Villains in advance of the season premiere, without revealing the premise of “Exit 9B.”
-- Develop a share-able, engaging stunt that will excite current fans, and attract new fans.
-- Keep Facebook activity intriguing during the 3 week “downtime” (between s3 finale and s4 premiere).
The Ultimate Villain Smackdown required fans to return to the page time and time again to ensure the “Baddest Bad” Villain was chosen to reign on all things Bad. Though the show was in replays during the time period of this Facebook stunt, Cartoon Network saw an increase in activity, including “likes” and “shares.” Specifically, during this period, The Regular Show page saw the average daily interactions increase by 3,000 and the engagement increase by 40%.
In addition to the increase in activity, this stunt effectively managed to keep Regular Show, and its villain’s top of mind for the three weeks leading into the Season 4 premiere. As such, the season 4 premiere, “Exit 9B” is one of the highest rated episodes of the series, and the highest rated episode of the season to date.

With 1.295 million social mentions across social networks, Telemundo was the number one Spanish-language broadcast network on social media on election night and ranked fifth nationwide among broadcast networks, cable and programs regardless of language. The hashtag #YoVote (IVoted) was promoted throughout the campaign and proved very successful in encouraging Latinos to register and vote in the elections. Telemundo combined its Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts to engage the Hispanic community with record-breaking prime-time election coverage, increasing their viewership by +30% from 2008 Election coverage.
The social campaign powered by Telescope, delivered real-time audience interactivity measuring the social pulse on the night with a live Tweet-o-meter measuring the tweet race between Obama and Romney, up-to-the minute curation of tweets and live integration to air.
Election Night created a lot of noise on 6th Nov 2012. Telemundo’s campaign got to the pulse of social conversation and views of the Hispanic community, a community that helped define the outcome of the 2012 Election.
The social campaign empowered the Latino community to participate on election night, giving them a platform to share who they voted for and discuss key election issues through videos, photos and comments, all pushed live to-air.
Telemundo Election Night, ‘Decision 2012: Noche de Elecciones’ was ranked #1 among Spanish Language networks and #5 on Trendrr’s Social TV chart for Election Night, November 6, 2012 – surpassing longtime Hispanic competitor Univision for most social TV programming on the night of the 2012 Elections.
The event required live, up-to-the-minute curation of high-capacity traffic with record-setting volume. Telescope’s Connect platform captured all information in real-time, providing the Hispanic community with relevant and immediate data during the election. Telemundo offered the most compelling real-time social experience for viewers integrating them into the live TV experience through social conversations, social data, real-time Twitter polling and SMS. ‘Pulso Hispano’ featured two additional interactive components on screen: a ‘Tweetometer’ of Obama-related Twitter activity versus Romney-related Twitter activity and a topical SMS polling with real-time, graphically represented results.
Telemundo was the only Spanish-language broadcast network to increase its election coverage viewership from 2008, with the newly added 360 conversations. The campaign garnered fantastic results: Telemundo’s primetime election night coverage on Tuesday, November 6 posted strong gains over the network’s 2008 election night coverage among key demographics, up +30% among total viewers (persons 2+) (927,000 vs. 711,000) and +24% among adults 18-49 (427,000 vs. 343,000), according to Nielsen.
Telemundo partnered with Telescope Inc to power all mobile and social components of the campaign and the broadcast graphics solutions were delivered through an integration with Chyron.

Mugshot Yourself, is a web app that takes your photo and uses advanced Fast Image Replacement technology to blend it with vintage mugshots from the 19th century to create someone new but also recognizably you. Created by BBC America along with social media agency Social Bomb and technologist Kevin Slavin, Mugshot Yourself used an advanced technology in a way that hadn't been done before. A fan-based social campaign, Mugshot Yourself introduced people to the fascinating world of Copper, the new cop drama set in 1864 NYC.
BBC America partnered with Mark Michaelson, building his arresting "Least Wanted" collection of vintage mugshots into the experience, combining user-submitted photos to artfully composite your face onto the face of an actual 19th century criminal. Mugshot Yourself analyzed your face in a captured photo, factoring in environmental data about lighting and the rotation and angle of your face in order to blend your image with a historical mug shot curated by Michaelson.BBC America knew that one of the most unique things about Copper was its strong sense of time and place – New York in the civil war era is a fascinating period – and there’s no one out there more adept at creating immersive digital experiences about place than Kevin Slavin. Bringing in Mark Michaelson’s amazing images brought Mughsot Yourself to another level that hit on all the touchpoints and themes of the show in an interesting way.
People love to play with their identities online, to share interesting things with their friends, and to talk about things they love. This format usually works best with shows people already know – The Simpsons, Mad Men – and Copper wasn’t out yet. BBC America really had to focus on people’s fascination with New York City, with history, and with true crime – all great subjects – and combine these things in a compelling way.
The results were greater than anticipated, generating over 15M social impressions from shared user mugshots across BBC America’s social media platforms. Mugshot Yourself received wide coverage from press outlets including Fast Company, The Daily Mail, Huffington Post, AOL, USAToday.com, Laughing Squid and Digiday, among others. The activity propelled Copper to become BBC America's highest rated series premiere of all time.

Social media was totally integral to the 2012 MTV EMA campaign to drive buzz and tune-in. Music fans—and artists—across the world responded in a big way!
- Fans who followed the official MTV EMA Facebook and Twitter accounts got breaking news like talent announcements, plus frequent prompts to vote–and they could vote directly on Facebook.
- During the campaign, 400,000+ mtvema.com users played the MegaFan game, which motivated them to share and tweet links in hopes of winning a trip to the show.
- Fans got involved in building up hype, both via the social media team’s outreach to fan websites and organically. Fans got out the vote on Twitter and Facebook, passionately urging fellow Beliebers, KatyCats, Little Monsters and other fan bases to support their fave artist.
- Nominated artists got out the vote, too! International megastars like Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Psy, Madonna, Taylor Swift and 1 Direction tweeted and posted on Facebook mobilizing their fan armies.International music fans’ engagement with the 2012 MTV EMA social media campaign was astounding—or, to use a word coined by Twitter fans, EMAzing!
Fans flocked to the MTV EMA Twitter and Facebook accounts in droves—both more than doubled their followers from 2011. Website traffic from social refers was up 75% from 2011. The social campaign, including voting on Facebook, helped lead to fans around the world casting a staggering, record-breaking 184 million votes.
In the days leading up to the show on 11/11, the social media campaign escalated—and so did fans’ excitement about the event. Performer and nominated artist Carly Rae Jepsen did a Twitter takeover of the @MTVEMA handle, answering fans’ questions in real time. And music lovers’ EMA anticipation really skyrocketed when the Twitter Tracker prediction module launched, enabling them to tweet predictions about the night’s big winner using hashtags like #EMAWinBieber. Several of these tags become global trending topics—and so did hashtags that fans created themselves for artists not featured in the module!
And on 11/11/2012, millions of fans gathered worldwide to watch the live show broadcast in hopes of seeing their efforts pay off with a win. On the day of the show, more than 4.5 million tweets mentioned the EMA (+192% from 2011). And during the show, 5.7 million tweets were recorded via the MTV EMA Twitter tracker (+104% from 2011). At one point, 8 out of the top 10 global trending topics were EMA-related. This astounding engagement on a global scale shows how passionately fans around the world responded to the 2012 MTV EMA social media campaign.

In partnership with Buzzfeed and Kings County Distillery, we worked together to build buzz around the premiere of the second season of Discovery’s Moonshiners, by creating the first-ever tweet-powered moonshine distillery. By tweeting @Discovery #moonshiners and hashtagging ingredients, flavor profile, and packaging, fans and moonshine enthusiasts could influence actual “tweet meters” monitoring their votes on-site at the distillery. Fans were able to watch the distillery live on Discovery.com and Buzzfeed.com to see their tweets take effect and watch the distiller produce hooch in real-time. Select participants were also able to enter for a chance to win Moonshiners prize packs, with select items from the set of the show delivered to them in actual Moonshiners oak barrels. We drove users to the distillery from custom Buzzfeed editorial posts and promoted tweets on Twitter.The primary goal of the Moonshiners program was to drive tune-in to the show on November 7, 2012. This second season premiere was Discovery’s highest rated Wednesday night series to date, as well as the #1 in primetime cable.* Further, over the course of the media campaign, there were over 35,000 mentions of #moonshiners, generating more than 1MM impressions in social reach.
The tweet-powered distillery was a first-of-kind program that blurred lines between the digital and physical worlds, allowing people to take part in a digital process with a real-world implication, and transforming fans into moonshiners themselves. The program helped make the premiere of Moonshiners as Discovery’s highest rated Wednesday night series to date.
*Amongst P/M25-54, P/M18-49, P/M 18-34

Duck Dynasty had a strong and growing presence in social media. Our Season 2 campaign aimed to give audiences a chance to connect directly with the Robertson family and become the #1 most talked about show on Facebook in 2012.
Our campaign began with our first ever Google+ hangout, identifying six superfans and providing them a once in a lifetime opportunity to virtually “hangout” with the Robertsons. We launched Jointhedynasty.com, allowing fans to tweet why they deserved to be an honorary member of the family and flying the winner to LA for the ultimate Robertson-for-a-day experience.
A “virtual duck” call was put together on Twitter, which was the first time that the social platform had been “gamified.” We offered free rides in tricked-out camo limos around New York for social savvy fans that tweeted #DuckMyRide. We implemented our first ever LIVE social response lab, pinpointing uber fans, pulling their photo from Twitter and seamlessly integrating them into key art.Our overall campaign drove tune-in and grew ratings from the Duck Dynasty Season 1 finale, engaging fans in a new and unexpected ways.
Duck Dynasty was the #1 show across cable and #2 cable and broadband combined, following The X Factor, in terms of social rank. We generated over 250,000 social interactions during the broadcast, second only to the X Factor, which is a record high for A&E.
#DuckDynasty, #Duck, and #JohnLuke trended consistently throughout the night. @DuckDynastyAE grew over 25,000 followers in one night. Our Facebook community grew by almost 100,000 fans in 24 hours.
Duck Dynasty broke it’s season one premiere rating with 2.4 million (A25-54) and was the number one telecast on Wednesday nights for three consecutive weeks (excluding sports and news).
On Facebook, Duck Dynasty closed out the 2012 year as they #1 most talked about show. The December Season 2 finale brought in a rating of 3.8 million (A25-54), setting a new record for A&E.

Chicago-based TV station WGN America was looking to boost ratings with a younger audience. Although it refreshed its content with shows such as “South Park” and ‘Entourage,” its ratings were lagging. Story’s challenge was to drive offline behavior—namely, tune-in—by developing engaged online communities.
Story approached WGN America with a focused plan to use the power of social media—with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube playing crucial roles—to drive viewership to a single show: “How I Met Your Mother.” Story proposed a three-stage campaign to grow ratings and amass awareness with an efficient and flexible use of hypertargeted media and engaging content focused on empowering the show’s “SuperFans,” which would help the content spread to the traditional and casual fans.FACEBOOK - http://fb.me/MeetAtMacLarens
The “Meet at MacLaren’s” Facebook Page is a thriving hub of content and conversations . The audience-management efforts have earned total engagement rates of 10 percent to 20 percent on any given day—unheralded compared with many well-known brands that earn less than 1 percent.
For International Suit Up Day—a fan-created holiday centered on one of “How I Met Your Mother’s” biggest inside jokes—Story championed a social celebration by asking fans to submit photos of themselves in a suit - http://j.mp/VLh7CQ.
For a Thanksgiving-themed HIMYM marathon on WGN America, considerable buzz and user content was generated on Facebook during the days leading up to the on-air event. A Best Slapsgiving Memes photo-album feature used a popular type of content on the page (show-related meme photos) for an album continually updated with new fan-created images - http://j.mp/124aYam.
TWITTER - http://j.mp/115A3l5
Besides being a hotbed of conversation about all aspects of the program, the @MeetAtMacLarens Twitter account has amplified WGN America broadcasts by engaging with rabid fans in real-time, on both coasts, while episodes are in progress. To date the account boasts over 103,000 fans.
@MeetAtMacLarens also dominates the discussion at peak hours—when new episodes air on CBS. By not limiting the page’s purview strictly to WGNA’s schedule, the handle serves a higher purpose and, in the process, emboldens the WGN America brand’s authority to publish.
YOUTUBE - http://j.mp/14p9cPP
The show’s biggest SuperFans were recruited to help create and spread great show-related content. For How I Met Your Mother, this included getting them together at the pub that inspired the show to engage in a roundtable discussion about their favorite moments from the program. We also produced content inspired by the program at various other show-related locations around New York City, all viewable at the Meet at MacLaren’s YouTube page.
RESULTS
- More than 1,947,000 Likes and 100,000 followers in less than 24 months.
- More than 280 photos were received and utilized in compelling on-air television spots and posted in a comprehensive Facebook album.
- The Best Slapsgiving Memes photo album netted a total combined engagement of 33,000+ Likes, 400+ comments and 7,000 shares across 41 photos.
- The Thanksgiving Day “Happy Slapsgiving” post received 61,734 Likes, 382 comments and 13,088 shares—by far the page’s most successful post ever.

VH1 is more than a TV network. The brand itself is a bold and successful mash-up of music,pop-culture and nostalgia, a high-energy hub where everything is “more” – more fun, more bold, and more exciting.
VH1.Tumblr.com brings all of the individually celebrated VH1 properties and ideas together for consumers to indulge in and claim ownership over—it’s Best Week Ever, Celebrity Gossip, VH1 programming, music, fashion or animated gifs all in one place.
VH1’s Pass the Bowl became a very popular, ongoing interview series. The way it worked, celebrities pulled questions out of the VH1 bowl, which had been left by other celebs. The answer was illustrated with a gif instead of a video.
During the election, the Obama campaign started including animated Gifs in its email outreach to younger voters. But, Obama for America was no stranger to the animated medium. The campaign has been using GIFs on its tumblr for at least seven months, reblogging some and creating others on its own — and engaging with Tumblr users along the way. Most notable of these interactions was with VH1, who ended up in a full on gif war with the commander in chief’s account.
Last year, the brand’s Tumblr account inspired a lot of inter-tumblr shipping. For the uninitiated, shipping is wishing for romantic relationships between two characters (or entities.) For example: Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, Suckie and Andie (“Pretty in Pink”), Joey and Phoebe (“Friends.”)
VH1 inspired the “Vhobama” ship (VH1 + Obama) and then Vhelton (VH1 + AfterElton) which started when VH1 were stirring up support for a contest hosted by AfterElton.com. The fictional relationship stirred up a lot of buzz and was promoted on the Daily Dot.
Tumblr has been credited for single-handedly rekindling the art of the animated gif. Animated GIFs have been circling the web since 1987, yet in the past few years, they seem to have increased in popularity via Tumblr. Making their own distinct mark on the Tumblr community, VH1 set up their own gif booths at televised events, namely the network’s own pro-social Do Something Awards and Divas concert. The best gifs of popular celebrities made during the red carpet events were later posted to the VH1 Tumblr.
Unlike more traditional blogging platforms, Tumblr’s social focus means that short form content tends to pick up the greatest numbers of interaction.
VH1 has mastered this method. The network creates a lot of its own eye-catching, attractive content for its audience, but is also excellent ataggregating material from other sources and creatively making it part of its own unique brand identity. By continuing to tell a brand story that’s unlike anything else on the web, VH1 has amassed an engaged a predominantly young audience, a community, via its Tumblr account.
VH1 has seen a 33% ratings spike over the past year, and it owes a lot of that success to the chatter happening on Tumblr.

From 2005 to 2008, Nickelodeon aired Avatar: The Last Airbender. At the show’s conclusion, Avatar fans were a formative group across the web, enthusiastic and vocal about their love for the show.
In winter 2011, fans got what they wanted when plans for the next iteration of Avatar were cemented. The new Legend of Korra spinoff was set for an April 2012 premiere date.
Nickelodeon’s marketing team was tasked with two main objectives. First, to migrate Avatar fandom to the new Legend of Korra series. Second, to leverage superfan excitement to bring in a new audience for Korra.
Our social campaign activated fans in 2 phases. We launched “Korra Nation” - a gamified fan club that gave fans exclusive access to content and prizes. Then KorraNation .com - a microsite that challenged fans to unlock the premiere online, weeks before airing on TV, by reaching 100K social actions. Both pieces received an unprecedented response and proved to be more successful than we could have imagined.The Legend of Korra deserves to win for Best Viral Campaign, Best Use of Gamification in a Social Media Campaign & Best Use of Social Media for Television because we successfully ignited audiences across the web with a rewarding, fan-focused campaign.
Our first tactic, the Korra Nation fan club, put super-fans first-in-line to view never-before-seen content housed on Tumblr. Members were alerted of new content via email -- and by using technology built by SocialToaster, we gamified the experience, enabling fans to earn points for sharing the content on social networks in just one click. Points acquired earned fans prizes -- like a trip to meet the creators at Comic-Con.
To officially introduce Korra Nation to fans, Korra creators Mike & Bryan made a video announcement. On the 7th anniversary of Avatar, we launched by seeding the video to the top Avatar fan site. Less than 24 hours after we announced Korra Nation, the club had 10,000 members, and earned more online chatter than that night’s episode of American Idol. To date, our membership exceeds 80,000. Content was shared by members over 250,000 times and generated 1 million views in 6 just weeks.
Our second tactic, KorraNation .com, gave fans a challenge: If fans reached 100,000 new likes, shares and tweets, we promised to unlock the first two episodes on KorraNation .com weeks before its April 14th on-air premiere date.
Fans successfully reached the goal and we streamed the premiere of Korra from March 24th to March 26th. The site had 417,000 unique visitors that weekend without paid advertising, and we gained over 130,000 Facebook likes. KorraNation .com received about 2 million online mentions per day that weekend and earned more chatter than the season premiere of Mad Men.
Ultimately we activated a huge fan base for the show. The Legend of Korra premiere scored a strong 4.5 million total viewers, ranking as basic cable’s number-one kids’ show and top animated program for the week with total viewers.

This past March, Nickelodeon celebrated its 25th Kids’ Choice Awards. Fans cast a record-breaking 223 million votes, up 11% from 2011’s record of 200 million. To get to that astounding number, Nickelodeon’s marketing team developed a social media campaign with two goals. First, extend voting to new platforms to increase votes and chatter. Second, leverage nominees to rally their superfans to vote.
Through our innovative approach to Facebook and Twitter voting, as well as a gamified fan approach dubbed "Fan Armies," we activated fans, influencers and celebrities with a KCA experience bigger and better than ever.Nickelodeon's 2012 Kids' Choice Awards deserve to win for Best Use of Social Media for TV and Best Use of Gamification in a Social Media Campaign because we extended the KCA experience to the places our fans live online, while triggering a larger audience through a gamified voting activation.
For the second year, we brought the ultimate experience to Facebook, with a custom voting application that lived on the core Nickelodeon page, as well as all of our satellite brand pages. In addition to the canvas application, we also created an in-wall voting experience, which allowed fans to vote without ever leaving their newsfeeds. This approach aligned with the way Facebook users typically interact with content on the platform.
We also created Fan Armies - a gamified experience where fans pledged their allegiance to their favorite nominee in the race to prove which star had the most passionate supporters. Since the nominees have an enormous social following, we activated those fans in addition to our own Nickelodeon fan base. By voting, tweeting, and recruiting friends, fans earned points that contributed to their nominee’s rank. Ultimately, Fan Army members voted 20x more than the average KCA voter.
The key to extending our reach on Facebook was giving these tools directly to the nominees, allowing them to host our app on their own Facebook pages. Superstars like Katy Perry, Big Time Rush, LMFAO and Victoria Justice all took advantage of this feature. Ultimately, Facebook drove a staggering 18.3 million votes.
We also launched voting on Twitter. With nominee-specific hashtags, stars like Justin Bieber, Big Time Rush and the Black Eyed Peas rallied their fans to vote 1.4 million times on Twitter. That early splash on Twitter was a catalyst for the night of show. The night of the awards, KCA was mentioned online once every second, and chatter increased 50x compared to 2011. Over the course of the evening we had 68 worldwide trending topics.
By bringing the KCA experience to places our fans and nominees live online, we made 2012 the most social KCA yet. Our social efforts helped KCA rank as basic cable’s top telecast with total viewers (6.9 million) in April, and also secured the top spot with kids 6-11 (12.6/2.7 million) and tweens 9-14 (12.5/2.6 million).

This past summer, USA Network launched Suits Recruits, a multi-platform interactive social game which took fans on a journey through a power struggle erupting between Pearson and Hardman, the two founding partners of the firm featured in USA’s number one original scripted program Suits. The unparalleled five-week immersive experience engaged fans with their favorite Suits characters by assigning them their first case in a digital story that coincided with the on-air plot lines and office intrigue when the show returned in June.
Suits Recruits became the number one feature on the network’s site driving more than 42.0MM page views with fans spending more than 8 minutes per visit playing and interacting with a Suits original storyline reflecting the show’s plotlines, characters and sponsor Lexus. Leading into Suits season two, fans joined Pearson Hardman’s Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle) as a lead paralegal, or Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty) as a powerful assistant, and the rest of the cast in Suits Recruits, a thrilling legal experience challenging them to solve one of the firm’s toughest cases. Self professed Suitors were offered the role of a paralegal or as an assistant, which enabled them to enjoy two different storylines and information privy only to their specific character to keep them on top of the leaderboard.
Transitioning seamlessly between video, audio and text, almost a quarter million fans read case details, speculations on promotions, converse with the series characters, and pick up juicy tidbits of inter-office relationships. As Suitors engaged with the characters and answered questions correctly, they earned achievements that qualified them to enter a sweepstakes to win the law firm’s $50,000 bonus. A unique version of USA’s Character Chatter was established specifically for the game entitled The Water Cooler, curating the conversation and encouraging discussion among fellow Assistants and Paralegals.
Suits Recruits demonstrated the power of digital storytelling to create two-way engagements so fans could explore the show’s plot beyond its weekly, 42-minute linear broadcast. It set itself apart with four crucial components: creativity, crowdsourcing, the latest Social TV and gamification technology, and a brand partnership native to the show.
From the very first concept phase, series executive producers Doug Liman and David Bartis and Suits creator Aaron Korsch oversaw Suits Recruits to ensure it accurately reflected the show and its characters. Within this custom experience, fans interacted with each other to find specific clues to continue in the game. Combined with these two components, a cutting-edge team including 30 Ninjas and Social Samba enabled an unparalleled two-way engagement. They could integrate the game into their Facebook world, pulling their friends into Suits Recruits, through Facebook’s Open Graph technology. Helping to drive the story was a Lexus LS 460L sedan that on-air serves as the official vehicle of Pearson Hardman and within Suits Recruits was used by players to canvass the city and track down evidence.
The Suits Recruits game was the #1 feature of USA’s site, driving 42.0MM page views and almost a quarter of a million unique players with an average time spent of 8.1 minutes per visit. (source: Omniture).

For years, wrestling fans have welcomed WWE into their homes via our weekly shows, including Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown and WWE Main Event, airing Wednesday nights. For those fans unable to attend a live show, the viewing experience has been just a passive way to consume the entertainment of our product. But the advent of social media and WWE’s aggressive integration of social media into our shows provides a viewing experience unmatched by any other weekly episodic show.
Through the use of our branded WWE mobile application, our production/content team provides supplemental information and video throughout the show’s commercial breaks. Social media, incorporated in all levels of our product (even show names), has been and will continue to be an important part of our overall fan experience.WWE’s initial foray into weekly television began on January 11, 1993, when the first episode of Monday Night Raw aired. Twenty years and more than 1,000 episodes later, Raw stands alone as the longest-running weekly episodic television show in history and WWE’s flagship program. Alongside live pay-per-view events and two pre-taped programs, Monday Night Raw or WWE Raw is the main vehicle in which our fans are able to connect with our product.
WWE’s mobile application and our second-screen experience, WWE Active (previously #RAWActive), lead our social efforts. In addition to showing exclusive backstage content and fan polls and tweets, WWE Active serves as the platform by which fans can actually control the direction of the show and the outcome of specific storylines.
Throughout the show, an on-screen personality, whether it be commentator or wrestler, will give the fans a choice of who will participate in the main event of the show, with selection based purely on the results of a poll of fan participation. Fans are able to see who is leading the poll and what trends they have started on Twitter based on the number of votes tallied.
Major announcements are announced via a number of mediums, too, including Twitter and Tout, a video-sharing service used by all of our Superstars and Divas. For example, Vickie Guerrero, the on-screen Managing Supervisor of Monday Night Raw announced a match that would happen on the Feb. 19 episode of the show. Fans who followed her and WWE on Twitter at @ExcuseMeWWE got an exclusive insight the show before her tweet was shown on TV.
We show our socially active fans that we enjoy their participation and constantly work to ensure they are engaged in our product as opposed to passively consuming it.

HBO’s programming has always been inherently social. HBO Connect was created to serve as a social destination that would continue the tradition of “water cooler” conversation in today’s digital world. HBO Connect provides a slick and sophisticated way for fans to interact with talent, unlock exclusive content, see what others are saying, and participate in innovative promotions.HBO Connect continues to be the social media hub of relevant content and conversation shared by viewers, leveraging leading social platforms in order to drive user engagement, participation and tune-in. HBO Connect was designed to:
· Support the breadth of HBO programming including series, sports, films, documentaries and specials
· Give fans direct access to talent in the form of Q&A;’s. Popular Q&A;’s include:
o Lena Dunham of Girls
o Steve Buscemi of Boardwalk Empire
o Anthony Bourdain of Treme
· Allow for the creation of mini-activations and promotions quickly and flexibly. Promotions of note include:
o Beyonce’s #LifeIsButADream – fans submit photos of their dreams using the hashtag #LifeIsButADream for a chance for a personalized Beyonce shoutout
o #SDCCGoTFan – fans using the #SDCCGoTFan hashtag entered for a chance to win a limited edition Game of Thrones Xbox 360
o #SaveYourself – fans had the ability to unlock a sneak peek to the season 5 finale of True Blood by tweeting #SaveYourself 100k times
· Provide navigation features that allow users to find desired content easily
· Create feeds that feature the most active and influential users on the site, including the cast and crew
· Encourage participation with easy authentication through Facebook and Twitter

Leading up to the third season of "My Big Redneck Vacation," Country Music Television approached Carrot Creative looking for a way to drive viewers to watch the season premiere. To amass interest, Carrot wanted to offer the ultimate viewing experience for the show's fans. Our idea: My Big Redneck Recliner.
We imagined and created a chair that fans of the show would want to watch the whole season in - complete with redneck characteristics such as mudflaps, antlers, a cooler, a blaring truck horn, a 6mph top speed and more. We then created a Facebook-based contest that invited fans to name this one of a kind chair and, in turn, made our custom branded content our prize.
The My Big Redneck Recliner Facebook application lived on the show’s fan page where people could explore the chair's features and name the throne. By inviting fans to name the chair, we allowed them to become a part of "Redneck" history in a tangible, experiential way while promoting CMT’s series.
The naming contest attracted contenders such as Freedom Farter, Chair Force One, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, The Papa Bear Lazy Chair, Cruisin' for a Brew Son and Louisiana Lounger. After a short 11 days, we collected over 9000 name submissions from over 5000 unique users. CMT and Carrot then decided on the top five submissions and invited Facebook users to vote on their favorite.
To drive participants and fans to tune into the premiere, the winner of My Big Redneck Recliner’s naming contest was announced on air during the show’s first episode on Saturday, January 26th at 9PM CT. After over 2000 votes were cast, the winning name for the recliner, and our custom content, officially became: "The R.A.T. (Redneck All Terrain) Vehicle."
The campaign was a success; it drove pre-show engagement, attracted viewing numbers for the premiere that exceeded the station’s goal, and provided a vehicle for the brand to utilize when promoting the show on Facebook, TV and across the web.
See more about the campaign here.

#Winning at the Oscars® Awards
About this Entry:
Skinnygirl® Cocktails stole the spotlight at the biggest award show in Hollywood – the Oscars® Awards. Leveraging the excitement surrounding the “Super Bowl of cinema” of their passionate female fan base, Skinnygirl Cocktails, through creative real-time social activation, was able to capitalize on the awards show by thinking outside the award show itself to integrate the brand into pre-and-post-show action in a strategic partnership with E! and popular women’s charity Dress for Success®.
#LadiesInRed: Skinnygirl Cocktails added substance to one of America’s most stereotypically superficial events. Extending our partnership with popular women’s organization Dress for Success®, Skinnygirl Cocktails pledged to donate $2,500 to the cause for every celebrity to wear red on Oscars night. Leveraging the hashtag #LadiesInRed, we encouraged fans to Tweet @Skinnygirl whenever they saw a red dress. What kicked off with a couple Tweets turned into a full-blown Twitter party as fans engaged with the brand and each other to keep tabs on celebs in red. With help from our fans, Skinnygirl Cocktails donated a total of $45,000 to the charity and made the campaign into a conversation across social media. The #LadiesInRed hashtag garnered over 5 million impressions and ~1,000 mentions in less than three hours.
From the #ERedCarpet to the #AfterParty: The debut of our TV during the E! Red Carpet coverage kicked of our social efforts. Synchronized Tweets, #ERedCarpet and thanking @eonline started the conversation, ending at the After Party. To truly wrap up the event “like a lady,” Skinnygirl Cocktails sponsored the E! Oscar’s After Party and sent one lucky winner and her guest to attend. With a team on-site to host the winner’s experience, we were able to live-tweet and post exclusive behind-the-scenes videos and photos backstage at the event. The sponsorship also included a custom-built Skinnygirl Cocktails bar, complete with our own mixologist. Our featured cocktail, the Skinnygirl™ Starlet, made its appearance in a 20-second call-out where our mixologist made one for E! host, Ross Matthews. The live-tweet team posted the recipe, encouraging fans to “sip like the stars” at their own Oscar’s viewing parties.
#VirtualParties: To generate excitement and scale, we activated our strategic relationships with a core group of bloggers with interests and audiences similar to the brand and gave them true VIP access. They were flown in from around the country and given an in-person meeting including an overview of the brand and experience the cocktails first-hand with our mixologist. Equipped with all of the information on the brand as well as the awards season execution. Skinnygirl further got their message out through a strategic partnership with Cosmopolitan as the “virtual cocktail” of their Oscar Twitter party.

For CW’s 2012 Fall Launch, we introduced the first-ever Live Twitter Feed in a Magazine. By adding an active 3G data chip to thin digital video screens pull in a live feed of tweets from the CW Television Network. The targeted insert ran in the October 5th, 2012 issue of Entertainment Weekly.
For the first time ever, technology has reached a threshold that empowered us to connect a traditional print magazine wirelessly to the internet. This allowed us to pull live social media, specifically from Twitter, into the physical pages of a magazine, forever changing the creative possibilities of the platform. Being the first to develop and introduce this technology is a real coup for CW. This big idea not only gave the network the attention that they were looking for, but it also spearheaded advancement into the future of media. This big idea grabbed headlines in mainstream press and drove massive chatter for CW. The insert achieved a 725% over-delivery in media value for its 227MM estimated impressions from the press reports. Coverage included NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams as well as various other high profile news sources and blogs. The online press alone generated over 36,000 social shares and thousands of tweets.
CW had a very successful Fall launch, as Arrow debuted with a 1.3 rating (adults 18-49) and 4.02 million viewers, making it the network's best premiere since The Vampire Diaries and the most-watched telecast for the network in three years.
With the buzz surrounding the new and returning Fall shows on CW, the Live Twitter Feed in a Magazine is putting the spotlight on the chatter in a way never done before. This groundbreaking execution is yet again raising the bar for what is possible in print media.

My name is Roger Smith and, as soon as I find my pants, I’m running for president. Of the United States. Of America. I’ve got some solutions to the nation's problems that I’ve been been developing ever since lunch. Fight unemployment: Deport the poor. This is the bold plan we need. Other candidates say they don’t care about the very poor. ANYone can not care about the poor. But who’s got the courage to put them on a raft? We can make America rich again. Only rich. And illegal immigration is also a very personal issue to me, because I really enjoy getting high on cheap drugs from Mexico. We need to ensure that all immigrants bring primo product state-side. We need to double the border police to make sure that nothing gets across that isn't quality stuff. This campaign isn’t about me. It’s about me finding something to do while Glee is in reruns. You’ve watched the debates. You think those guys are nuts? I’ll show you nuts. So, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, merch, God, America, where am I?Shhh... Can we do this in a whisper? Jack Daniels & I did a little capoeira last night. But it’s a good question. Strong question. I like the cut of your jib. Sorry if I’m a little rambling. It’s the bourbon talking. And the bourbon is chatty. What was the question again? Why should I win? Good question. Strong question. I like the cut of your jib.
Let me just stab myself in the knee. AAAH!! Okay! I’m awake. Why should I win? Have you read my twitter @rogersmith2012? Have you?? Because I haven’t, I really can’t get that thing to work. I can post stuff, but I can’t find anything that I post. Let me ask Paul to help. He’s my tech guy. Okay, he’s my dealer. And his name is Neal Babcock. But look at that! He found my posts! Thanks, Neal Babcock. You can run and play. Let’s find some good ones: “Partied with #republicans after #convention. Lost my wallet in#ChrisChristie.” “Bring a friend to vote. I did. And his name is Flask.” “I just won in Iowa! It's true, look it up! Okay, don't. But I did.”
Arianna? Honey, it’s the Shorty people. What’s that? Yeah, they probably get that all the time... What? She says to check outhuffingtonpost.com/rogersmith. I’ve been blogging. I’m a blogger. I blog. Arianna! Don’t touch that. Okay, just a little. I’ve got time for a shorty.
Merchandise? Holy crap, we’ve got it -- foxshop.com/rogersmith2012. Other candidates make promises. I sell them to you. Shirts, bumber stickers, flasks, posters. I’m also having a garage sale next Saturday. I’ve got some old sneakers and a plasticware. Just one. Just one plasticware.
Facebook and I have a complicated history. Sure, my memes are beloved -- http://bit.ly/rogerhorsebayonet -- but on the other hand, I bought shares at $38. And now I can’t afford the bullets I would need to shoot Jesse Eisenburg.
And have you seen the attack ads against me? -- http://bit.ly/rogerattackad -- It’s like Kissinger said: “If they’re out to get you, you must be doing something right.” I think that’s what he said. Hard to tell with the accent. We usually just communicate through the physical act of love. During which, oddly, he also has an accent.
In summary: I didn't win the election, but If you find it in your sexy hearts to award me this honor, I’ll do whatever you want. Seriously. Anything. I’ll kill. I’ve killed before and will do it again. It doesn’t even slightly bother me. Step-mothers. Reality show hosts. Handsy gym teachers. I’m yours to hire. I totally get politics. Vote for me.

Pretty Little Liars is known for generating a lot of social media buzz but we needed to take it to the next level when promoting the summer finale of Pretty Little Liars in August 2012. We announced that someone on the show was going to be revealed as being “guilty of the ultimate betrayal.” To drive excitement for this episode, we created an integrated on-air/online campaign called #TheBetrAyal to get fans talking about who would be revealed as the betrayer in the summer finale. The center piece of this campaign was #TheBetrAyal Suspect Tracker” App.The summer finale of Pretty Little Liars became the #1 “most social” TV series episode in history, breaking records with over 1.6 million comments according to SocialGuide The buzz began growing three weeks before the finale date when we launched #TheBetrAyal campaign. Our on-air promo campaign teased that someone was going to betray everyone else in the summer finale episode. The hashtag #TheBetrAyal was featured in the spot. At the same time, we launched “#TheBetrAyal Suspect Tracker”, an App which lived on Facebook and abcfamily.com. We narrowed down “The Betrayer” list to 12 suspects and encouraged fans to tweet their vote for who was guilty of the ultimate betrayal. The order of the suspects updated in real time based on votes. Hundreds of thousands fans checked out the App. Talent and journalists tweeted their votes as well, helping to fuel the buzz! We included the hashtag in our tweets from our Pretty Little Liars handle.
#TheBetrAyal campaign drove massive buzz leading up to the finale and during the finale, buzz reached a peak of 36,000 tweets per minute. And most importantly this buzz helped fuel ratings. Pretty Little Liars hit Season 3 highs in nearly all key demos including Total Viewers, standing as the show’s most-watched summer finale on record.

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February 26, 2015

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The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media, recognizing the people and organizations producing real-time short form content across Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram, Vine, and the rest of the social Web. The 7th Annual Shorty Awards ceremony will take place in New York City and will be livestreamed on the web in April 2015.